re: #10 Obdicut

I guess it depends what you mean by ‘significant’, but if you don’t think a large numbers of Palestinians hate Hamas, I dunno what to say. Why on earth would you think that Hamas wasn’t hated by many, when they act like this?

I think you misunderstood what I said. I do not doubt that a significant number of people hate Hamas. That is different from stating that a significant number of people want to overthrow them.

As to the latter point, I do not, as I stated above, have any hard data. However, I do know that surveys continue to show a majority of Gaza residents supporting Hamas’ views on specific key issues, even while stating that they would vote for Fatah. This suggests to me several possibilities (with the caveat that this is at best informed speculation, since I have not performed a scientifically valid survey of the people involved):

(1) Some people responding to the survey are telling the questioner what they believe he wants to hear;
(2) The survey is merely reflecting the reality that even after the Hamas-led coup in the Gaza Strip, there is still a significant number of Fatah supporters who live in the Gaza Strip and who would vote for Fatah if an election was actually held;
(3) Like potential voters everywhere, the “voting” population in the Gaza Strip has a significant portion of “independent” voters, who voted for Hamas during the last elections because they were fed up with the corruption of the PA, but would not vote for Fatah because they are unhappy with the “results” of Hamas rule;
(4) As with many voters anywhere, they might support a particular party even if, when they are asked their views on individual issues, those views are more consistent with the platform of another party (think conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans — and, yes, there are such people — in the U.S.).

Taken together, the survey ata suggests, to me at least, that while there may be many in the Gaza Strip who are unhappy with Hamas rule and would, if given an opportunity to vote them out of power, vote against Hamas, the number of those who would actually seek to “throw off” Hamas rule is, at most, very limited (but not non-existent, since there are even those who will risk their lives to help the Israelis against Hamas).